Terrorists behind online rumours on Assam riots: Shinde

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today said the communal colour given to the recent ethnic violence in Assam was "unfortunate" and noted that the "motivated" online rumours were evidence of terrorists resorting to cyber space.

At a three-day police chiefs conference in New Delhi, Shinde said security forces should develop skills in the cyber domain to not only locate the malicious content, but also identify those responsible.

"It is unfortunate that the recent violence caused by the ethnic groups in Assam has been given communal colour and has resulted in heavy loss of lives and displacement of people to relief camps," he said in his inaugural address.

"There is an increasing evidence of resort taken by terrorists to the cyber space domain," he said.

"The recent incidents in Bangalore in Karnataka, Pune in Maharashtra and other states in India where motivated rumours and irresponsible use of the social networking media posed a new challenge," he said.